The strategy is that foreign markets follow word of mouth from the US. If US audiences don't like a movie, and then it gets released overseas, its more likely to do bad there too. However, US audiences don't follow word of mouth from overseas, if a movie does bad overseas, it may be a big hit in the US. Therefore its a safe play to launch overseas first. There are several exceptions to this strategy, but it is the safe play.

Read an interesting take that the character is actually an evil version of Jean Luc Picard, which would be a good match for what we've seen and heard so far. Picard is someone you could actually view as an equal to Kirk in many ways. I'm not saying it is , just an interesting take.

If you've read the comic books, you know that Carl sees the world in very black and white terms, or at least he has so far. This show did a good job of portraying that. With that said, I thought the show was very, very anti-climatic, basically pulling the rug out from under the audience. I didn't like Andrea's character that much at times, and yes while our friend is dying and turning into a zombie, lets not keep working to get the pliers, but instead sit and have a final talk...idiots die on the Walking Dead.

This would be really good news if it were not for Roland Emmerich. Back whent he original came out I was hungry for anything scifi, so this movie was given a pass on a lot of things, however now with new Star Wars, new Star Trek, and so many more options, Emmerich's crap won't pass muster. Someone who could take this in a darker, cooler direction could do well with it. They also can pass on having Smith and the rest of them returning, I'm not attached to any of those characters, unless its Randy Quaid's crazy twin brother.